"I am always confident in myself and I feel it was very difficult," he said. "I relied on having [Robert] Snodgrass at the club and we had to sell him to Norwich and losing him was a major blow and at a crucial time in pre-season we never really replaced him.

"We lacked two or three signings and I think the new owners know that and I think the investment will be there for the new manager, but I wanted it yesterday and didn't think the takeover would take so long - it came just too late for January and the next manager will benefit from that."